


Follow the Light

by lostinthemusic6



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Fluff, Romance, Songfic, Summer Fling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-23
Updated: 2015-08-23
Packaged: 2018-04-16 21:53:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4641564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostinthemusic6/pseuds/lostinthemusic6
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was like the sun breaking through the clouds after the darkest day had passed. She was broken, like him, but she was able to hide it, to disguise it and to push it down but he saw it, maybe that was why he couldn't help himself. Maybe he just wanted a distraction from the own pain he had, maybe he wanted to be her distraction, maybe he just wanted her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Follow the Light

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the song "The End" by Silverstein (feat. Lights)

.

.

_And I knew you could never love me_

_I had so much sorrow inside_

_You could never reach_

.

.

The first time he met her, he knew he was done for. It was like the sun breaking through the clouds after the darkest day had passed. She was broken, like him, but she was able to hide it, to disguise it and to push it down, but he saw it, maybe that was why he couldn't help himself. Maybe he just wanted a distraction from the own pain he had, maybe he wanted to be her distraction, maybe he just wanted  _her_. He still didn't know.

She was home for the summer, staying in her old farmhouse that hadn't really been touched since her Daddy died and her sister moved in with her boyfriend and her brother joined the army and was stationed somewhere out in California. She told him she missed it, said it hurt to be there but it also hurt to be away from it. So every now and then she came back - something her siblings didn't - and she would go through everything, cleaning and rummaging through all the things that made that house of her's a home. She was getting rid of the things they didn't need, said that one day they would sell it and it would have to be done eventually anyway.

That was how he met her. He was working for Dale then and she had called him, saying how she had some old farming equipment that they wouldn't need anymore and Dale had sent him out there in the truck and he wasn't sure what he was expecting when he turned down that gravel road, passing a mailbox with the faded name of  _Greene_  on the side. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, no.

It certainly wasn't her.

Beth Greene.

Her and her blonde hair and blue eyes. Pale skin and long legs. She was wearing a pale blue sundress and cowboy boots and her hair was blowing wildly in the wind as she stepped off the porch and made her way over to him but damn, she was probably the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. She was, he decided, there was no point in denying it.

She had a kind smile - a smile a man like him didn't deserve - and she talked to him and he didn't offer much in the return but he loved to hear her voice. She spoke of her Daddy, how he was never the same after her Mama passed and how he had tried, tried to be a better man for them but in the end, he returned to the bottle and she said she wanted to be mad, wanted to be angry at him for leaving her like that but she also said she understood, and Daryl didn't understand but he assumed that the pale pink scar she had hidden under her array of bracelets on her wrist had something to do with it.

He wasn't sure why he came back later that day when she offered to make him dinner. He wasn't sure why he came back nearly everyday after that either. Wasn't sure why instead of being in that dingy old motel room he suddenly found his stuff being scattered all along her bedroom floor. He found himself sleeping in her bed, tangled in the covers, tangled with her. He enjoyed that summer, pretty sure he smiled more in that summer than he ever had in his whole life.

He knew it wouldn't last though. A girl like her and a guy like him, there was just no way. Oh, but he let her believe it, hell, he was pretty sure he let himself believe it at times too.

His life had never been easy, just a constant of bad shit after another but being with her, it made things brighter, made him believe that maybe something good could finally happen to him, maybe it already had. Maybe she was that light he always seemed to be searching for as he lived through all the darkness that surrounded him.

He was broken though and he knew she was too but like he knew, she was able to put it away, to push it down and try to be whole again. He knew she was trying, trying to teach him that as well but he knew it was a lost cause. He was a Dixon after all and all Dixon's ever knew how to do was remain broken, to break other things. He wanted her though, wanted her to be able to push through to him, to shine her light on him and lift him up, take him away from all that darkness.

She couldn't though, but sometimes, when it was dark in her room and she was placing kissing on his skin, her soft lips tracing over his rough scars, his dark past, he almost thought he felt it, that brief flicker of light, he could see it, knew if he let her try hard enough maybe one day she could actually pull him out of that ocean, away from the sea of despair, he was sure she would have been able to do it eventually.

He never even gave her a chance though.

He left that gloomy, raining day in July - he found it ironic in a way, how the sun refused to shine that day. He knew she would be heading back to New York, knew she had a life there. She had a dream of playing music and sharing it with the world and he wasn't going to be the one to stop her - because he had a feeling she would have stayed for him, would have chosen to stay in that town that had nearly taken her own light from her, if he had asked her to.

Which was why he had to leave. If he didn't, he knew he would have, he would have asked her to stay, to continue to shine her light on him. He needed her but he knew she would be just fine without him, at least he convinced himself of that. He convinced himself that there was no way she would ever be able to love him - even if he had heard her whisper it to him that one time when she thought he was asleep. He convinced himself that there was no way she would have ever been able to reach all of that darkness he held, even if her light was one of the brightest things he had ever seen, even if he knew that she could. Oh, he was certain that she could.

That darkness always won out though. So he left. He turned away from that light that was flickering at the end of the tunnel and turned back to the darkness, and more than once he thought about looking back but at some point he seemed to have gotten lost, took a wrong turn or something, because when he glanced behind him, it was like the light had never been there at all.

At least that's what he convinced himself to believe.

.

.

_I fell for your dreams. I fell for your lies_

_There was no other way_

_You know I tried_

_._

.

He broke her heart.

There was no other way to describe it, plain and simple. That was what he did. She came back from a trip to the grocery store and all of his things were gone, the sheets were cold and it was like he had never been there at all. Sometimes she found herself wondering if it had all been a dream.

Sometimes she found herself wishing that it was.

It wasn't though, she was all too painfully aware of that. She felt it in that dull ache that made it's presence known every now and then, that thrumming in her chest. She had given him a piece of her heart, had let him take it and use it how he willed and before he left that day, he had forgotten to give it back. Or maybe it had been his intention all along. To take that strength that she had found in herself in that darkest time of her life. Lord, she knew he needed it. That didn't mean she was okay with it though.

She had waited around for a few days after, just hoping that maybe she was wrong, maybe he would come back. He never did though. She knew he wouldn't but oh, she wanted to believe it. She figured no one was to blame but herself. She was the one to believe him, to believe that he needed her as much as she needed him. She had felt it, in those nights where they laid curled up together, wrapped around each other and he had held onto her so tight, like he never wanted to let her go, like he was afraid if he did, she would drift away.

She thought he loved her. No, he never told her, never ever spoke those three words but with the way he looked at her, those smoldering blue eyes telling her what she knew his lips couldn't, she believed he did. It was always there, in his eyes, in his touches, in the way he held her and she had convinced herself that as long as he never stopped  _showing_  her how he felt, she would be perfectly happy with him never speaking those words.

She convinced herself of a lot of things since then. How, if she ever saw him again, she wouldn't even give him a second glance, she wouldn't run straight into his arms and hold onto him for dear life, she wouldn't yell at him, tell him how much he hurt her. She wouldn't tell him that after everything, her broken heart still loved him. She convinced herself of all of that, time and time again, and sometimes, she found herself believing it.

At least until she would be lying in her cold bed, alone, and she would feel that dull thrumming ache in her chest and then she wouldn't even remember what it was she was trying to convince herself of because all she felt was his strong arms wrapped around her and his rough fingers ever so gently circling around the pale scar that tainted her wrist. She could remember how the house smelled of burnt cookies for nearly three days straight because she had allowed him to distract her that one night and she completely forgot that she had them in the oven.

She remembers how he held her that night she finally broke down, sobbing about her Mama and her Daddy and how her siblings just didn't seem to care anymore. She told him how she had felt so useless now, like no one needed her and she wasn't sure why she kept coming back to this stupid farmhouse that brought nothing but memories of a life she had once lived. He had let her cry and then after, he once again showed her just how much he cared about her, how he needed her, how he wanted her, how he  _loved_  her, and she had believed him, she had trusted him, she had loved  _him_.

She never expected to see him again after that summer he took off and nearly three years later when she walked up onto that stage and found his blue eyes staring back at her she nearly walked right out. She didn't though. She held her ground. She had no idea what he was doing in some bar a few hours outside of Atlanta but he had already taken her dreams away once before and she sure as hell wasn't going to let him do it again. This was her dream after all, no she wasn't famous and she wasn't some star but she was still getting to share her music, music that she now played, music that he had been the inspiration of.

She was still living in New York and she had plans to move back home in a year - Shawn was finally coming home and Maggie and Glenn just announced they were having a baby - and she was only in Georgia for that one weekend but she missed it, missed everything that she once had felt the need to run away from. She had a life in New York but she didn't feel like she was actually living one until she found herself driving down an old dirt road, the radio blasting loudly and the open windows blowing her hair around her face as she sang along to some old country song.

When she finished her set and had sent Maggie and Glenn back home, telling them that she wanted to have a few drinks and it was fine, Maggie didn't need to be hanging around in a place like this in her condition anyway, and that she would just catch a cab back to her hotel, only then did she make her way over to the man that so many years ago, had broken her heart just when she had tried so hard to fix it.

There were so many things she wanted to say, so many questions she wanted to ask, so many answers she wanted to know but she was not at all surprised to find that once again, she let his actions speak louder than words and they found themselves back at her hotel room, stripping off each others clothes and getting tangled in between the sheets once again.

She cried after and just like all those times before he held her in his arms and when he finally spoke those three words she had always known, she had lost herself once again in him. For he was that missing piece, that place in her heart that had finally stopped thrumming against her chest and it was like an explosion. Like a spark that lit her world on fire and she found herself in fear of being burned. She couldn't go through that again, she just couldn't.

So that time, she was the one to leave him behind, slipping away in the dim light of the morning and convincing herself that this was what needed to be done, even if the moment she closed that door behind her she felt that dull ache thrumming away in her chest again.

And a few weeks later, when she saw that small pink plus sign staring back at her she figured it only fitting. She probably would never get back that small part of her heart that she had given to him that first summer they met but this time, he had given her something else, something that would eventually make her feel like that dull thrumming ache wasn't even there at all.

At least, that's what she convinced herself to believe.

.

.

_I set our house on fire_

_To watch it burn_

_But I couldn't just leave you_

.

.

He didn't blame her, not at all, when he woke up in that hotel room alone, the only proof she had been there at all was the faint smell of her strawberry scented shampoo on the cold pillow beside him. What did he expect anyway? That he would tell her those words and she would suddenly forget like the last three years had never happened? He knew he hurt her, hurt himself, when he left her that summer but he never admitted to being the smartest man around.

It had been pure luck, fate, chance, whatever the hell you wanted to call it when he caught sight of her stepping up onto that stage in that bar he had nearly passed up on his way home. He had just finished his last shift down at some factory job he had been working at for the past few months. He never stayed at a place long anymore, usually just making enough money until he could move on but this time it was different. This next place he was going to would most likely be permanent.

His brother had tracked him down a few months ago, told him how he found a woman, was making a life for himself. He was opening a garage in town and wanted his baby brother to be his partner and Daryl, not having nothing better to do had agreed. Maybe it was time he tried planting some roots of his own. He hadn't been with anyone since her and he felt like a damn fool for knowing that deep down, he probably would never want anyone else in that way again, not like he wanted her, but he could handle having a steady job, a permanent place to call home - though sometimes he felt like the only home he could live in was one that had blonde hair and blue eyes.

He of course should have asked the name of the town his brother was living in before he agreed though. Damn near bit off his thumb off when Merle told him because there was that damn fate again, playing tricks, being a bitch like always. That was how he found himself heading back to the place where he had run from nearly three years before. Back to her hometown. She wasn't there though, he knew, he also doubted she would ever come back but a part of him hoped.

Maybe that's why he found himself stopping by every now and then and he always hoped that one day he would pull up and she would be there, wearing a pale blue sundress and cowboy boots, her blonde hair blowing wildly in the wind and sometimes he swore he saw her but he knew he was just imagining it and he knew he deserved the pain he felt whenever he pulled up and saw that the house was just as empty as always.

Besides, if he thought he didn't deserve her then, he knew for a fact he certainly didn't deserve her now.

That still didn't stop him a year later when he found her in that bar though. He wanted to tell her everything, wanted to explain why, but all he saw was that damn light of her's and it had been so long since he had seen even a glimmer of that light that he found himself unable to form words. At least until later, after he had once again been in the comfort of her light long enough that he finally found his voice, found the words he should have spoken to her all those years before.

And he held her as she cried, as she whispered the words back to him and he knew it was too good to be true, just like he knew it back then. A girl like her and a guy like him, it could never work. Maybe it could have before, before he ran off and left them nothing but memories, but now she was the one who needed to get away, to run before things became too much and she knew there was no turning back.

He wasn't going to run this time, he would have done whatever she asked of him, would have fell to the ground at her feet and begged for her forgiveness if she told him to because he knew there was no way he could have ever left her again. He thought that light was bright the first time around, it was down right blinding this second time.

She left though and he let her because he knew he deserved it, to be pushed away from the light again, to be suffocated in the darkness.

Merle knew something had happened, something big, but being in the slammer for ten years had changed him - he had a wife and step-daughter now for Christ sake - and he didn't push him, didn't nag him or tease him and sometimes he was grateful but other times he just wanted to let it all out, to scream and have someone scream back at him for being such a dumbass but he never did and life went on as usual.

The garage opened up - and it was a success, even with the owner's baring the last name  _Dixon_  - and a year passed and he found himself with a steady job (one that he actually liked) and he had his own place - a small cabin in the woods - and he had people that liked him, even considered him their friend - one of them was even the damn  _sheriff_ , of all people - and he realized he finally seemed to have a life, and he uses that term loosely because while he may have had a life, he wasn't sure if he was actually  _living_. He was pretty sure the only life he wanted to live was one that included a certain blonde with blue eyes and a smile that a man like him never deserved.

Maybe that was why he found himself still driving by her farm, still trying to catch the slightest glimpse and that maybe, just maybe he would catch her walking out onto the porch in a pale blue sundress and the wind blowing her hair wildly around her face and he tries to stop, to stop himself from always going out there because seeing that nothing has changed, that she isn't there, is almost as much torture as seeing her in his dreams nearly every night is. He can't help but wonder after summer has come and gone if she had ever come back to the farm at all after that summer they spent together because it certainly doesn't seem like it and he can't help but feel like the biggest dick ever when he thinks himself the reason why she never wants to return home.

Then one day, a few months after the first leaves begin to fall he is driving by her farm again and has to slam down on the brakes when he notices the mailbox. What was once a faded blue with her last name barely legible from the years left alone was now covered in a fresh coat of green paint, and her last name is stenciled all crisp and clean in black and Daryl's heart nearly beats out of his chest as he pulls over and parks his truck before getting out and beginning to walk silently down the drive, keeping close to the trees and out of sight.

There is a car he's never seen before parked in front of the house and he hears a sound coming from the faded red barn and he watches curiously as a man, maybe a few years younger than himself, emerges carrying a toolbox and some supplies and heads toward the house before he stops on the porch and begins working at pulling off the siding and it doesn't take Daryl long to figure out that the man was obviously beginning renovations, cleaning the house up, making it look nice again and he briefly wonders if they finally sold it - even if he can't remember seeing a "for sale" sign in the yard - but then he thinks back to the mailbox and how the last name was repainted and that made it all to obvious that this man working on the house had to be related to her somehow.

He gets confirmation a few days later from Rick, telling him how everyone was excited for the return of Shawn Greene, now a war hero, and how he was living back home, deciding to fix up the place and put some honor back into the Greene name - though Rick is quick to assure him that there was never any question that the Greene's had been nothing but good people who had just been put through the some hard times, times that found them lost and scattered and Daryl nearly lets it slip out that he knows just how much sorrow had plagued that family, and the youngest blonde-haired daughter, but he manages to bite his tongue and nod his head and Rick, nor anyone else in this town (except maybe wise old Dale) is none the wiser of that one summer Daryl Dixon spent with Beth Greene.

He meets Shawn a few times and the man is a nice guy - something he never doubted considering who his sister was - and he figures that Beth had never mentioned him to her family - then again, why would she - because when he introduces himself, the oldest Greene doesn't even flinch at his name and he isn't sure why he finds that upsetting.

Another year passes and Daryl still drives by the farm, hell, he even found himself working on it a few times after Rick's convincing - the man had known Hershel nearly his whole life, even considered him family - but Shawn never once mentions his sister's - at least not enough where he gives enough information on which sister he is talking about - and Daryl finds himself on more than one occasion having to stop himself from just blurting out all the burning questions sizzling under his skin.

One day though Shawn comes by the garage, having dropped off one of the old trucks that had been parked in the barn for nearly six years, and he overhears him talking to Carol - Merle's wife, who usually worked the desk - and asking her if she could do him a huge favor. His sister was coming into town and he was in a slight panic because he had strict orders to make sure the house was baby-proofed before she got there and he didn't know the first thing on how to go about baby-proofing.

Daryl decides that is the perfect time to take a long overdue hunting trip and three days later he finds himself emerging from the woods behind his cabin, covered in mud and most likely smelling something awful, to see Carol waiting on the porch, telling him to hurry up and shower and get ready because there is a barbecue and he is going and there is no debate and Daryl grumbles the entire time but he does what she says because while he wasn't afraid of his brother's wife he knew that she could put up one hell of a fight and he just wasn't in the mood.

Of course, when Carol directs him to the Greene farm about an hour later Daryl is cursing up a storm, scolding himself for not staying out in the woods longer. He doesn't show anything though because no one is supposed to know that this place has this kind of affect on him, no one is supposed to know that at one point, he imagined a future here with a kind-hearted blonde who gave him smiles he didn't deserve.

He finally wills himself to relax when Shawn comes up to him, introducing a tall brunette with green eyes as his sister Maggie, who in turn introduces her husband Glenn and their three year old kid, because while a part of him had hoped that the sister coming to town had been Beth, he is also glad that it wasn't. Maggie tells him that there is beer and appetizers in the kitchen inside and to help himself and that the food should be ready shortly.

So Daryl walks on inside, acting like he has never stepped foot in the house before. Pretends that he doesn't have a clue that the third step on the stairs creaks on the right side and there is a hole in the wall hidden behind an old painting where after an intense - and three month long grounding, induced - water balloon fight had ended with Beth slipping across the wet floor and crashing right into the coat rack that had in turn went right through the wall on impact. He pretended that he had never taken Beth Greene on the couch in the living room or even that one time on the kitchen table and he tries his damn hardest to not act like for one light-filled summer, living in this house with her had never made him the happiest man in the world.

He can't grab a beer out of the fridge fast enough and just as he pops open the bottle, tossing the cap into the garbage, he turns as he hears the pitter patter of tiny feet skipping along the wooden floor and he looks down to see a wobbly looking kid, probably no more than two years old, tottering right toward him. He can't help but stare down at the kid who is looking up at him with wide blue eyes and when he gives Daryl what he can only call an adorable little smile his heart starts beating rapidly in his chest, even before he hears that voice coming from down the hall, because this kid, the dark haired little boy with bright blue eyes, is looking at him with a smile he doesn't deserve and he only turns away when the boy does, turning around and shouting out some garbled word that sounds just like  _Mama_.

He sees her and she sees him and it's like the world stops, or maybe just his does because he doesn't even have to ask, she doesn't even have to tell him and he just  _knows_. And in that moment when Beth reaches down to pick up that little boy,  _their son_ , he catches another glimpse of that light at the end of the tunnel and this time he runs and pushes forward, leaving all that darkness behind him and this time, he has no plans of ever losing that light again, even if it kills him.

.

.

_Hands from the sky_

_Swat us away like flies_

_As we follow the light_

.

.

She wasn't even planning on coming home this weekend. She was still so busy trying to pack up her own apartment back in Atlanta but Maggie had convinced her, told her she needed a break and besides, it would be a good chance to get a head start on house hunting because while her plans were to spend the first few months on the farm, she knew she would never be able to stay there, not anymore. So she agrees and it's been about three years since she came back, she had come the following two after that one summer she spent there with Daryl, Maggie and Glenn had gone the next summer and then by that time, Shawn was coming home and there was no need to make an extra trip out there, besides, she kind of had her hands full at the moment.

Beth had always wanted to be a mother and even though how it came about wasn't at all how she had always imagined it, she wouldn't change a thing. Well, maybe that was a lie, maybe there was one thing she would have changed but it was too late to go back and she had spent plenty of nights crying over her decision to leave that morning and she always told herself that if she ever found him again, she would give him the choice.

Of course, she never expected to find him standing in the kitchen of her childhood home with their son standing between them. She almost wants to laugh because maybe this was how it was always supposed to go, this is where is all started and this was where it was all going to end, or maybe - and she tried not to be too hopeful - this was where a whole new beginning would start again. So she lifts up their son and without another word she turns and heads for the stairs and she doesn't have to look behind her to know that he is following her because she saw it down there, in his eyes, he knows.

She leads them into her bedroom and he closes the door behind him as she goes to sit on the bed. She lets the squirming boy in her arms down and he immediately goes over to toys that are scattered down on the small blue blanket and for a moment she assumes Daryl is going to come sit beside her but he pauses as he walks by the blanket and the little boy at his feet holds out his hand, offering him a small toy motorcycle and with the faintest of smiles Daryl takes it from his little hand and then he is dropping to the floor, folding his legs in front of him as he takes a seat next to the toy box and she manages to blurt out in a whisper that his name is  _Danny_  just as the little boy holds out another toy to him.

Daryl looks over at her, still taking the toys that Danny keeps handing him before he looks back down and this time his smile is bigger, not quite a grin but more of an awed fascination and Beth feels the tears pricking at her eyes and she doesn't even fight them as Danny sits down in front of Daryl and he just points to the motorcycle and without even having to question it Daryl begins to slide the small bike around on the floor, guiding it between Danny's little legs and she always knew Danny looked more like Daryl than her but until now, seeing them sitting right across from her she never realized just how much and as her little boy lets out a giggle, Beth has to hold back a sob and she sniffles loudly, getting Daryl's attention and he glances back up at her, frowning.

She sobs out an apology and before she can say anything more than those two words Daryl is on his feet, placing a hand lightly on Danny's head before he walks over toward her where she is now wiping at her eyes and he falls to his knees in front of her, shaking his head and telling her it's alright, that he understands and that's when the sobs really start and before she even realizes what is happening Daryl is pushing her hands away and cradling her head just as she collapses forward into his chest and he just holds her.

She realizes then just how much she had missed him. They had spent one summer together, a total of five weeks but within those five weeks, she had given herself over to this man completely and while he may have left, taking that one aching piece with him she had still loved him. Then, after that one night they spent together years later and she had been the one to leave, not even trying to find that missing piece she knew he still held, she had known it then too, she still loved him. She had loved this man and now that he had given her one of the greatest gifts she had ever received - all with him not knowing - she knew that she would always and forever love this man, even if he wanted nothing to do with her.

Maggie had asked her about it numerous times, as did Shawn and she always told them the same thing. Danny's father was a good man who had meant a lot to her but in the end, things didn't work out and it was an accident but it was certainly not a mistake. Not one moment spent with Daryl Dixon and any moment after giving birth to his son, had ever been a mistake, that much she was sure of.

It never sat right with Maggie and Shawn. They knew that Danny's father didn't know about him and on more than one occasion did they ask her for his name but Beth never told. In a way, she wanted to keep Daryl a secret, not because she didn't want them to know and track him down but because this man had meant so much to her, so much that her siblings would never know. He had been there when they had not and even if things were better now, if the years the Greene siblings spent apart had helped mend their relationship with each other, she didn't want to admit that Daryl Dixon had been a large part of why she was able to get through it all.

Beth told Daryl this all, the both of them sitting on the floor and watching Danny as he played with his toys and he had sat there and quietly let her explain and he never looked angry, never looked betrayed and more than once she found herself thinking just how much she didn't deserve this man in front of her. She had never given him a choice in the matter, never allowed him to decide if he wanted to be a part of this little boys life and he doesn't even try to tell her that what she did was wrong, that she was an awful person, not even once.

Instead he tells her how he never had anything good in his life, never thought he deserved it. She had known most of this, how his father had been a mean drunk and his mother had loved her drinks and smokes more than him but he tells her again, how growing up he never imagined something good happening to him. He told her she was good, much too good for him and he thought that if he stuck around her, he would take that good away and he couldn't do that to her.

He told her how leaving her had been one of the hardest decisions he had ever made. How for the first time in his life, she brought him toward the light, showed him that maybe, just maybe he didn't have to be trapped in the dark. But there was a part of him that knew his darkness was  _too_  dark, that as much as she tried, she would never be able to light him up completely.

She told him how none of that mattered, how that darkness was a part of him and she loved every part of him. He didn't believe her when she told him he had just as much light in him as he claimed she did. All it took though was for her to look toward the small boy a few feet away from him and tell him that he _did_ , he was a good man and his son was proof of that. By the time they had both said everything they needed to say Beth wasn't sure where her tears stopped and his began.

He asked her, as Danny began walking over to them, if there was any possible way there was a place for him here, with them, and she had almost laughed. She just looked at him though, giving him a smile and telling him that there would  _always_  be a place for him here, with Danny and within her heart, with  _them,_  and his answering smile had been near blinding.

She thought about that first day she met him, how all of this had started. They fell in love that summer. It was more than that though. It was more than love, because within that summer, they found something else, something more within  _each other_. They found a light, a source of relief from all the pain they had been through. They found a place in each other's heart and sitting there she couldn't help but smile as she realized that there was no longer a thrumming ache in her chest. She finally felt whole again.

She knew it wouldn't be easy and she knew there was still so much that needed to be discussed and explained but right now, all she saw was her and Daryl and Danny and the future they could all have together and she was sure that it was one of the most brightest things she ever did see.

.

.

_This union, a battle fought and lost_

_This union was not about the cause_

_This union was never about love_

.

.

* * *

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading :)


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